MORE NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

More than 800 police conducted raids on suspected terrorists early Thursday morning in both Sydney and Brisbane, Australia. The raids followed a plot to randomly kidnap people and then videotape their execution by beheading. Clearly, it was intended to terrorize Australians. Australia a few days ago committed 600 troops to fighting ISIS.

I can still remember when Australia had a “white Australia” policy. This was prior to the Whitlam administration coming to power in 1972. Only Europeans were allowed into Australia.

If they had kept that policy, they wouldn’t be facing domestic terrorism now! (See next two paragraphs).

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“Fresh terror busts in Australia expose a common Achilles’ heel of the West: Indiscriminate refugee policies turn free countries into breeding grounds for jihad. It’s the same game in America. Soldiers of Islam have weaponized our blind generosity against us.

“In Sydney this week, authorities detained a half-dozen Muslim plotters and arrested a top collaborator in an alleged conspiracy to kidnap and behead a random Australian citizen. The accused mastermind? Afghan refugee turned Aussie Islamic State recruiter Mohammad Ali Baryalei. He and his aristocratic family were welcomed Down Under decades ago. Baryalei returned the favor by taking to the streets of Sydney to recruit and radicalize dozens of fellow Muslim immigrants or their children.”

(“Letting in the wrong refugees,” by Michelle Malkin, Townhall, September 19th.)

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The Scots have voted “no” to independence, preferring to remain in the United Kingdom.

That does not mean things will go back to the way they were.

David Cameron promised the Scots greater devolution if they stay in the UK. These devolved powers will also apply to Wales and Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom will be further weakened by these changes.

At the same time, other ethnic groups across Europe are now demanding their own referendum. The Catalans and Basques in Spain, the people of Flanders in Belgium, the Venetians and others are all lining up.

And I haven’t mentioned the Russian-speaking minorities in Ukraine and the Baltic republics.

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One problem highlighted by the Scottish referendum is the feeling that so many have that government is far away and really doesn’t care about them. That’s true in Great Britain but is also the case in the United States.

This is dangerous and needs to be addressed.

Last week’s Economist magazine featured a small boxed item in the US section titled “Money and Power” (page 38, 9/13/14). The article begins with the following words:

“In some countries, the best way to get rich is to go into politics. In America it is the other way round: the best way to break into politics is to be rich.”

Of greater concern is the fact that “entrepreneurs are not very common in Congress . . . Lawyers dominate” (no surprise there!) “. . . most senators and a third of House members listed that as their occupation.”

The final paragraph is the most telling and helps us understand why Washington is increasingly alienated from the people. “The most troubling thing about the list is how narrow a range of experience lawmakers draw on. Many have spent their whole lives in politics. Only one, John Delaney of Maryland, has been the boss of a publicly traded company.”

“In fact, Putin has a number of things now in his favor. He knows, that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko knows that Russia can do more harm to Ukraine than the West can do to help it, since Ukraine — largely because of geography — matters more to Russia than it matters to the West. Putin knows that while Europe has implemented sanctions against Russia, those sanctions are limited by Europe’s own requirement for Russian natural gas and the degree to which Europe and Russia are enmeshed in each other’s economies. This fact is further exacerbated by Europe’s financial crisis, which further inhibits Europe from enacting truly oppressive sanctions: for sanctions, remember, are a two-way street that, once implemented, can hurt Europe as well.”

“The Long game in Eastern Europe”, Stratfor, 9/17/14, by Robert D Kaplan.